This invention relates to tents and other light, temporary structures made of canvas stretched over a collapsible armature.
There is disclosed in the prior art several types of self-erecting tents and similar structures which rely on springy armatures made of wire loops to instantaneously deploy the devices. Some of those simplest structures, such as the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,892 Norman, are very unstable and require the use of ground spikes or other securing devices.
More stable, but also more complex self-erecting tents, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,461 Ivanovich et al., use long lengths of steel wire to form numerous loops, adding considerable weight to a device which is intended to be easily carried.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,812 discloses another self-erecting tent that requires interconnecting six separate panels to form an enclosed space.
The instant invention results from an attempt to reduce the amount of panels and armature material without compromising the volume and stability of the tent structure, and to improve the structure foldability by reducing the number of wire loop panels.
The principal and secondary object of this invention are to provide a simple self-erecting and easily collapsible tent structure that combines stability and light weight. These and other valuable objects are achieve in a basic model by using only two wire loops to form the sides of the structure, and two short lengths of flexible rods to connect the sides and form the roof. The rods are bent to bias the sides away from each other, and a floor mat spread between the bases of the side panels are used to position the panel against the tension of the bent rods. In an alternate version of the structure, the rods are bent to form arcs of at least 180 degrees, and webs of fabric spread across the arcs are used to hold the panels at the desired distance from each other. In all cases, the covering can be made of canvas, woven or unwoven cloth or any other fabric-like material.